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Newham Recorder

Two vicious criminals who laughed as they launched attacks on people have been sentenced by a judge who described their attacks as ‘horrifying, cruel and barbaric’ have been sentenced, the Newham Recorder reports.

Joshua Jordan and Sadik Kamara launched attacks on women using ammonia liquid, which thy sprayed on their victims in order to rob them. After spraying the ‘high strength corrosive liquid’ in the violent robberies on two victims, they were reported as leaving the scenes laughing by witnesses. Kamara, aged 24, of Booth Road, Silvertown, and his accomplice Jordan, 20 years and living in Ruscoe Road, Canning Town, both in south Newham, were jailed for 14 years each by a judge at the Old Bailey court in London.

The trial, the culmination of proceedings that took place inearly October, was presided over by Judge Dodd QC, who described the men’s attacks as “horrifying, cruel and barbaric” and said that the duo posed a significant risk to the public of further harm. It took the jury less than an hour to convict Jordan and Kamara.

The robbers would travel from their homes in Newham to the neighbouring borough of Hackney, where they were casing a convenience store in Mare Street, Central Hackney. Then on March 10, they launched their attack, targeting the 50-year-old storekeeper, who was working the tills alone at the time. Four men, believed to include Jordan and Kamara, entered the store. Without warning, the masked intruders walked straight to the storekeeper, with Kamara squirted the ammonia directly into her face. He did not make any demands for cash or even give the victim any warning.

Despite being sprayed from close range, CCTV footage from inside the store showed the storekeeper gallantly trying to fight off and kick out the gang, who are seen milling around the front of the shop. The scuffle sends store displays crashing to the floor as the woman tries to protect the shop from being plundered.

After fleeing the supermarket in a getaway car, the gang chanced upon their next victim, also a woman in her fifties, in Hackney’s Hassett Road. Two robbers got out of the car and bundled the woman to the ground, where they repeatedly sprayed the liquid into her face and stole her handbag. Police found discarded bottles of the substance at both crime scenes, the labels clearly stating that the ammonia could cause severe skin burns and blindness.

Both the shopkeeper and pedestrian who were assaulted were rushed to hospital with burns, one of which sustained chemical burns to her mouth also. While neither suffered permanent harm, the storekeeper was traumatised to the point she has now given up working at the shop.

CCTV cameras caught the gang, including Kamara and Jordan, who were subsequently arrested at their homes after police raids in May this year. Medical paperwork was found in Kamara’s home suggesting he had sought treatment, possibly for chemical burns, a day after the robberies. At the hospital, Kamara lied to doctors, claiming he had squirted ammonia in his eye while cleaning. He had since recovered from the burns.

The two robbers, who were described by investigators as little more than ‘cowards’, were convicted of two counts of applying a corrosive fluid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure or disable or to do some grievous bodily harm; one count of robbery; and one count of attempted robbery. Kamara was also told to make restitution of £2,000 (USD $2,678) to the victims.

Investigation lead Det Con Ben Kahane called the pair’s actions “cowardly in the extreme”.

“Five physically strong males preying on lone slightly built women to attack and rob,” he said, adding: “I hope they use the 14 years’ imprisonment that they have received to reflect on this.”

The report does not mention the fate of the other members of Kamara’s and Jordan’s gang. Acid attacks and assaults with corrosive chemicals such as ammonia and bleach are the rise in London, with many such attacks carried out for the purposes of robbing the victim.

The UK’s largest careers fair has made its way to the ExCel centre in Newham, east London this weekend, attracting around 30,000 visitors to the Custom House area in search of new and exciting employment opportunities, local newspaper the Newham Recorder reported on Thursday.

Skills London 2017 is geared towards young people between the ages of 15 and 24, and is hosted by London First and Prospects, and is supported by the office of the Mayor of London and the National Careers Service. The event will feature a selection of interactive activities and inspirational careers options for youngsters looking for their future career choice or to enter a new line of work.

The event is open to students, teachers, career advisors and jobseekers, with an astonishing 40,000 jobs on offer from 200 exhibitors from the fields of education, leading employers, training courses and job experts. Companies such as Google, Heathrow Airport and the supermarket chain Tesco and others will be on hand to offer careers advice and guidance.

Skills London is now in its tenth year and has been lauded for its high levels of interactivity and engagement with its target audience in a fun and inspiring atmosphere. Speaking to the Recorder on the fair, Jasmine Whitbread, the chief executive of London First, said: “London’s leading employers are stepping up to help young people make the most of their potential.”

The staging of the event in one of London’s lowest ranking areas for youth employment is also a sign of the recovery of the British economy after the 2008 financial crash which saw young people bear the brunt of job losses and a decline in opportunities.

Skills London 2017 takes place over 24-25 November from 9.30am to 4.00pm. Entry is free.

London, UNITED KINGDOM

VIJAY SHAH and PHOEBE COOKE via Newham Recorder

A doctor’s surgery located in the Newham, east London district of Forest Gate has been rated ‘outstanding’ despite having a caseload of 13,000 patients and at a time when the National Health Service (NHS) is under strain from government cutbacks and pressure on services, local newspaper the Newham Recorder reported yesterday.

The Woodgrange Medical Practice, located on Woodgrange Road in the north of Forest Gate, was recently rated ‘outstanding’ in an inspection report issued by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), an independent regulator of health and social care services in England. Staff at the practice were overjoyed to receive the Commission’s rating, which they ascribed to a ‘team effort’.

Woodgrange was particularly commended for its ‘clear vision and leadership’, and CQC inspectors were impressed by its high levels of positive patient feedback and its work with residents with diabetes, asthma and mental health conditions – as well as its use of ‘innovative and proactive methods’ to improve patient outcomes. The surgery, located near Forest Gate rail station, was also lauded for its efficiency and excellence in staff leadership, and also received a secondary ‘good’ rating from the CQC for its record on safety, care and response to patients’ needs.

One of the senior general practitioners (doctors) at Woodgrange Medical Practice, Dr. Muhammad Naqvi, said “I think we are really responsive to the patients’ needs,

“We are working in a difficult climate from a financial perspective but also from the demand – in a borough like Newham the population always in flux.

“We have got a great team and the practice is really well led, we are very conscientious and try to leave no stone unturned.”

“This shows a lot of the hard work and team-work that our staff have put in. We just wanted to do our best and show what work our team can do – this is a fantastic surprise.”

The CQC inspection visit in May 2016, also gave special praise to the practice nurse Noreen Gilhespy, whose work at the surgery was also described as outstanding. Gilhespy runs some community group geared towards Forest Gaters’ general health, social interaction and exercise routines.

The surgery currently has 13,000 people on its books, a massive increase from the 1,300 it began with when it opened in 1993. It has been rated four out of five on the NHS Choices patient website.

The nurse, Edith Hilda Munro, was born in a well-off household in Hackney, the daughter of Scottish engineer John Munro, and local Leah Nathan, and had three brothers and sisters. She first began her illustrious career in the Albert DockSeaman’s Hospital of Custom House, in the south of the London borough, before finding work with the Voluntary Aid Detachment shortly after it was founded in 1909, a group which sent nurses to treat the injured in war zones. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Munro tended to soldiers injured in the battlefields of Europe.

First World War recruitment poster for the Voluntary Aid Detachment . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tragically, Munro contracted acute bronchopneumonia, a dangerous lung disease. She then developed heart failure and passed away at the tender age of 23, on the 12th December, 1916. She was then buried by family in East Ham. Sadly she was not regarded as a casualty of war and her grave, in East Ham’s Plashet Jewish Cemetery, laid undiscovered until a research team led by Harold Pollins and Martin Sugarman, with the involvement of AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex-Service Men and Women) discovered her details and began to piece together Edith’s story.

The special stone-setting ceremony at the ancient Plashet cemetery was officiated over by Rabbi Livingstone, senior Jewish chaplain to the Armed Forces. Also in attendance were Newham politicians, members of London’s Jewishcommunity and representatives of St. John’s Ambulance. Also paying their respects were three distant descendants of Edith Munro.

Wreaths of poppies, a symbol of the World Wars, were laid at Munro’s grave while the military theme The Last Post was played. Local historian Stan Kaye, who also contributed to the research team’s efforts, said “It was a very emotional service,”

“I kept thinking what it must have been like 100 years ago when she was buried in this cemetery – cold, and in the middle of the war.”

Newham Council‘s chair and civic lead, Cllr. Joy Laguda, herself a former nurse, who attended the reconsecration ceremony and laid a wreath on behalf of the council, commented: “The stone is a lasting legacy to Edith’s valour”

The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was founded in 1909 by the UK armed forces alongisde St. John’s Ambulance and the Red Cross. The VAD nurses, virtually all women, treated battlefield injuries and became renowned and respected for their courage under fire. Many were killed in action from bombing or contracting infections. Hundreds were killed in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, and relatives of VAD nurses who died in the call of duty have long struggled to get their contributions to the war effort properly recognised.

Kensington Primary School, which caters to pupils aged between 3 and 11 years, was a finalist in a competition run between Tesco and the Newham Recorder as part of Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme, which has a pot of £30,000 from sales of carrier bags which will be split into three grants of £8,000, £10,000 or £12,000. Members of the public will get to decide which school or organisation will benefit from the scheme. Shoppers will be able to vote for who gets which grant at their local Tesco supermarket from the 27th February to the 6th March 2016.

Staff at the primary school plan to overhaul the outdoor spaces in order to ‘provide a vibrant and educational outdoor environment’, the Newham Recorder commented. Kensington Primary’s business manager, Shazidur Rahman, spoke with the Recorder as to why his school needed the grant.

“Something we’ve found is that a lot of the kids don’t have a local park to go to,” Rahman said.

“We want to put lots of different flowers and plants in and teach the children about them.”

Kensington Primary has already identified a number of suitable places on its premises to redevelop in order to bring the outdoors to its pupils’ doorstep and give them valuable educational and recreational opportunities which are otherwise in short supply locally.

Rahman further commented “It depends when we get the money, but we hope to start work this spring,”

“We think the school holidays might be a good time to get people in and work on the garden.”

Other than overhauling the school’s open spaces, the primary also plans to purchase large planters for the playground, special signs to indicate different types of plants, learning trails and specially commissioned wall art, all of which are intended to improve the school environment and appearance, as well as help their young pupils learn about their natural world and surroundings.

“It’s fantastic that we’re one of the shortlisted organisations,” said Rahman.

“The more money we can get, the more we can develop the school.”

The Tesco Bags of Help scheme is run all across England and Wales and involves community groups bidding for shares of £30,000 grants allocated to 390 regions identified by the supermarket nationally as one of the UK’s largest grocery outlets. The grants come from the sale of 5-pence carrier bags by Tesco stores, which the retailer has been legally obliged to charge for since October 2015.

A tenant living in a council-owned property in east London has been sent to jail after he was discovered to have been illegally renting out his home against council rules, the Newham Mag reported this weekend.

Mubato Nzabi, aged 48, was caught out by council housing inspectors in the borough of Newham, and was subsequently convicted at Wood Green Crown Court in north London of illegally subletting a three-bedroom council house in Ordnance Road, Canning Town, in the south of the borough. He allegedly lied to the council’s housing department and the Department of Work and Pensions, a national government body in charge of benefits and employment services, claiming that he was residing in the property himself along with his daughter.

In court proceedings, the judge and jury were informed that in fact, Nzabi had been renting out the property to an unnamed family since April 2013, after moving out of the property into another home, and had failed to notify the council of his change in living situation. Nzabi however continued to claim government welfare benefits, namely housing and council tax benefit, under his name for the Canning Town address despite no longer living there. He had originally moved into the property in 1994.

Nzabi’s con was unravelled after Newham Council‘s housing inspectors turned up at his subletted property for an inspection as part of their regular housing checks made to ensure council tenants are actually living in their assigned homes.

The crown court prosecuted Nzabi for falsely claiming benefits, council tax evasion and illegally subletting under the Fraud Act and the Social Security Administration Act. He was sentenced to nine months in prison at the hearing on July 24th, the Newham Recorder reported.

Mayoral advisor for housing, Cllr. Andrew Baikie, told the Recorder: “This successful prosecution shows that we take illegal subletting very seriously and will take tough action against anyone we catch.

“Illegally subletting council properties unfairly deprives someone else of a council house, who may have been waiting on our register for a long time. It is imperative that our housing stock is distributed fairly.”

Meanwhile, Newham Council, concerned about the large number of illegal sublettings of their homes in one of London’s most crowded areas, are running an amnesty for subletting tenants to turn over their properties without risk of prosecution. The amnesty, which runs until the 1st of September, allows subletters to hand over their house keys and give up their properties without being taken to court.

Cllr. Bailie said of the situation: “We take illegal subletting seriously and will take tough action against anyone we catch”. Newham council tenants wishing to avail of the amnesty are urged to call 020 3373 9370.

According to figures produced by insurance firm Direct Line and the Association of Residential Letting Agents, it is estimated that 3.3 million people are living as unofficial tenants in the UK, amounting to one in every ten rental homes. Almost fifty per cent of surveyed residential lettings agencies have found multiple occupants in homes supposedly registered to single persons or families after carrying out inspections of tenancies, according to the ARLA.

The families of three teenagers who were targeted in a racially-motivated attack outside an East Hampublic house are appealing for witnesses who saw the assault, reports the Newham Recorder this week.

Stephanie Villegas and Hollie Vincent, both aged sixteen years, were walking down the High Street South, a major road linking East Ham with Canning Town, with their cousin Rohan Reda (aged 17), when two older men began hurling racist abuse at them as they walked past the White Horse pub, opposite East Ham’s Central Park. The incident occurred at around 6 pm on Thursday 11th June.

The teenagers then claimed that the two men approached them, punched them, and then threw them to the floor in the unprovoked attack.

English: East Ham High St. This is a photo of High St North East Ham, taken looking south towards the station. Sibley Grove is on the left. The pub on the corner is amusingly named the Overdraft Tavern (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“It was disgusting. We had already walked past them once”

“A little while after, we walked past them again and that’s when it started. They were older men, at least in their forties” Hollie told a reporter from the Newham Recorder. Hollie’s cousin Rohan, who is of mixed heritage, was then subjected to a racial slur.

Hollie, who had recently graduated from her studies at local Brampton Manor Academy (formerly Brampton Manor School) recalled in the interview that the attack began when one of the men accused Rohan of ‘eyeballing’ him, meaning that the attacker thought that the 17-year-old was looking at him in a contemptuous way. The men then began following the three teens down High Street South and one is said to have thrown an apple at the teenagers as they tried to avoid a confrontation with the racists. Hollie then tried to confront the men over their behaviour.

“That is when we asked them to leave us alone, but he punched me in the face and I fell to the ground” Hollie narrated.

During the attack, the Newham Reporter also states that Stephanie’s hair was pulled, her phone was smashed and that the thugs also snatched a chain from around Rohan’s neck.

Hollie added “I’ve lived in this area my whole life but have never seen anything like it”

“The worst thing was people were actually standing there and watching, but finally two schoolboys came to help us”

“All three of us were assaulted. It was a racist attack against my cousin and I just don’t understand how two grown men assault two young girls”.

As of publishing date by the Newham Recorder, there have been no arrests made and police inquiries are still ongoing. Local police are appealing for witnesses to come forward in confidence.

Anyone with information about the East Ham incident should call police on 101 or alternatively, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. You do not have to give your name or any identifying details.

The “What’s Stopping You?” event was held by the Prince’s Trust at its head office in central London and saw young people from all over east London converge to learn about effective jobhunting and support in building their confidence. The event was sponsored by Barclays bank, which has regular callouts for graduates and apprentices from the east London area, which covers boroughs such as Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets. These boroughs have some of the highest rates of youth and general unemployment in the country.

(c) West Midlands Police/Flickr

The event offered a special Prince’s Trust Team programme running for twelve weeks. One graduate from nearby Tower Hamlets, who had sent out hundreds of applications but failed to secure a single interview, found the programme was exactly what she needed. In an interview with the Newham Recorder local paper, she commended the event for helping councillors and other decision-makers get to grips with the barriers facing young people seeking work. The Prince’s Trust Team programme teaches valuable skills in CV writing, interview techniques, work presentation and other means to search for a life-changing career.

Another member of the programme had been unemployed for three years after leaving school at the age of sixteen. She has lost all confidence in herself and was fast shedding all her hopes for the future. Thanks to the Prince’s Trust, she is now on course to starting a university course in medicine and hopes to become a doctor.

Dermot Finch, a director with the Prince’s Trust, echoed concerns that the rising tide of youth unemployment is damaging the hopes and aspirations of a whole generation, as the British job economy licks its wounds from the impact of a triple-dip recession following the infamous credit crunch of 2008. He noted that it was a particular problem for east Londoners who have left school, college or university recently and that young people need all the support they can find to source a job. Meanwhile, Tower Hamlets councillor Shafiqul Haque, the cabinet member in Tower Hamlets for jobs and skills, added that Tower Hamlets council was committed to helping young people fulfill their potential through finding work or professional opportunities such as self-starting a business. The councillor also commended the Prince’s Trust event for highlighting the issues of youth joblessness so that councils and charities can work together to reverse the trend.

The Prince’s Trust is a charity set up by HRH Prince Charles of the United Kingdom. It offers practical and financial support to disadvantaged young people, giving them the confidence and key skills needed to help them find gainful employment. Their services are primarily aimed at 13-30 year olds who have been in care, are long-term unemployed, been excluded from school or who have been in trouble with the police. Since 1976, the Trust has helped over 750,000 young people, with an extra 100 helped every day. The charity offers events and trips out for its users, as well as engagement activities, progression support and peer mentoring. It helps young people gain qualifications and offers programmes designed by and for young people. The charity relies heavily on donations from the public and benefactors.

More than one in four young people in Newham are struggling to find a job – a total of 27 per cent – while in Tower Hamlets 21 per cent are struggling, according to the Office for National Statistics as cited by the Newham Recorder report today. The Prince’s Trust quotes figures on their website that “around one in five young people in the UK are not in work, education or training. Youth unemployment costs the UK economy £10 million a day in lost productivity, while youth crime costs £1 billion every year“. Youth unemployment has been exacerbated by the recession and government austerity cuts and young people have borne the brunt of massive job cuts and layoffs in the private sector.